1 online resource (x, 338 pages)

In this book, a gay literary critic evaluates a half-century of fictional works "by, for, and about" homosexual men and situates them in the context of an emerging American gay culture. Reed Woodhouse shows how the best gay fiction of the period, like all good literature, not only reflected but anticipated social changes that were afoot - from the founding of the first enduring gay rights organizations through the Stonewall riots to the ambiguous mainstreaming of homosexuality that continues today

Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-327) and index

Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Five houses of gay fiction, revisited -- Part one: Shame, impudence, and ecstasy ; 1. From the closet to the theater (via the electric chair) ; 2. Sexual dandyism and the legacy of Oscar Wilde ; 3. Immodesty and immolation -- Part two: Ghetto freedoms, ghetto follies ; 4. The life of desire in 1978 -- Part three: Four degrees of assimilation ; 5. Virtually normal, and vice-versa ; 6. Homeward bound -- Part four: Imagining death ; 7. A wedding and three funerals: Four AIDS novels -- Part five: Looking back ; 8. Boy's life: Neil Bartlett's ready to catch him should he fell ; 9. White lies: Edmund White's gay fiction -- Afterword -- More gay fiction: An appendix -- Nonce, genre, and one-handed books -- Notes -- Index

Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library

Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002

digitized 2010

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